Six Indonesian Sailors Survive Shipwreck In Norway

As many as six Indonesian sailors, along with seven others of other nationalities, were saved when their Bahama-flagged ship sank in Osloj`rd waters, Norway, recently, according to an Indonesian embassy official in Oslo. A team from the Indonesian embassy had already met the six Indonesian sailors at their temporary accommodations in a hotel at Pasta, 30 km from Oslo, Manayur Pangeran, charge d`affaires at the embassy, said in a report from the Norwegian capital on Monday. The cargo ship, named “Crete Cement,” ran aground in shallow waters in Oslofj`rd last Wednesday (Nov 19, 2008). At the hotel, the Indonesian embassy team also met the other crew of the ship including the Russian captain, one Norwegian sailor, three Croatians, a Pole and a Lithuanian. The team had also met Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Skibsrederi AS, a representative from Oddbj`rn Lange, the company owning the ship, and also the company`s lawyer, Christopher Walker, and Inspector Morten Kveim from Norwegian Accident Investigation Board (AIB-N). At the meeting, Manyur who led the Indonesian embassy team, asked the company to duly honor the rights of the six Indonesian sailors, namely their social security benefits, salaries, and plane tickets to return to Indonesia. Manyur said at the meeting the company promised it would honor its obligations to the sailors such as providing hotel accommodations, food, payment of the sailors` salaries, and even loans if needed. The company had also given the sailors mobile phones to contact their families in Indonesia. According to Lange`s representatives, the six sailors would temporariliy be placed in the Thon hotel until the police and AIB-N had completed their investigation of the shipwreck. The sailors would be sent back home to Indonesia as soon as the investigation was finished. As the representatives from Indonesia`s embassy, Manyur said that he had also given official letters to the six sailors to help them in the immigration process at Oslo`s airport. However, one of Indonesian sailors, Amin Tohari, could not yet leave Norway since he still had to undergo on interrogation process in his capacity as a navigator on the Crete Cement. Manyur said the Indonesian embassy had discussed the matter with the Directorate for Indonesian Citizens` Protection and the Law directorate from Indonesia`s ministry of foreign affairs to help the six sailors in their immigration process. The Crete Cement sank after hitting rocky seabed in the middle of Oslofj`rd , south of Aspon island, about 20 km from Oslo.